Chrysalis by halotolerant

[halotolerant]

I was so pleased to find a flashfic comm for this fandom - hello all! I like to delurk with fic, so here it is:

Title: Chrysalis
Rating: R
Words: ~2,800
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin
Notes: For the Transformation challenge. Thank you to elfwhistletree for another ace beta in yet another fandom.
Summary: Transformation isn't painless

Comments

[fadagaski]

Woooow. That was stunning. I love the weave of this piece, the twisting and linking of different times. Fabulously done.

[halotolerant]

Thank you, I'm very glad to hear that you liked it. I've been itching to try and mess about with traditional canon vs the one in the show and I enjoyed writing this.
Cheers for feeding back *g*

[dolique]

good lord. i'm not sure i quite understood everything you were doing there, but what i did get was fabulous. *adds to memories*

[halotolerant]

*g* Judging by the comments I was a little more oblique with my meaning than I intended in this fic (there's some explanation further down the comments if you're interested) but I'm delighted to hear you enjoyed it anyway! Cheers for commenting *g*

[dolique]

god knows the line between the obvious & the oblique isn't always easy to walk! i certainly struggle enough with it in my own writing.

i've thought about it a bit, though, and i think my confusion here was really arthur's-i mean, i'm familiar with the traditional canon, it's just that you've placed the reader so far into arthur's head here that as he's adrift, so must we be. all of which is to say that the weave does come together at the end of the piece, and a reread clarifies the ambiguities, so well done!

and reexamining this, i adore the language, my god. “It has been and shall be,” he murmured, almost in a whisper, a penetrating gaze from his glowing eyes transfixing Arthur with an unexpected rush of heat through his belly. “Oh have I sorely missed you, liege.” the eyes (and homoeroticism!) of the show, the language of legend: this sentence pairs them perfectly. and arthur's glad countenance could be right out of malory.

and then this! Merlin tends him carefully - Merlin serves me, Arthur thinks, distractedly, then:

[halotolerant]

Put your mind at rest, I'm very flattered indeed! Really, thank you for this, you've seen so much of what I wanted to say (and credited me with some things that were more like happy accidents of writing!) and it's what I always want to try and deal with in this fandom - what you call the 'joy' and 'sorrow'. I know the show has already played with canon, but when I see Arthur and Gwen together I can't help thinking "You are going to marry her and then try to burn her at the *stake*" and so on for all the characters. Arthurian legend is so tragic, and that's where I got the idea for this fic - what if the happy vision we see in the show is something Merlin is trying to give Arthur, something he never had?

I'm delighted that you enjoyed this, thank you so much for letting me know *g*

[ca_pierson]

That was quite amazing. I probably didn't get everything, but what I understood was beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

[halotolerant]

Thank you so much, I'm pleased you liked it. I think I didn't make some parts of it as clear as I should have done but I glad to hear it works on some levels despite that! *g*

[_la_la_la]

the once and future king, the wizard who ages backwards, the time of greatest need... not painless indeed. Lovely and intricate interpretation.

[halotolerant]

Thank you *g* Maybe I went for a little too intricate, but I'm very pleased you enjoyed it, cheers for commenting *g*

[ratcreature]

I don't think I get it. Merlin trapped Arthur in his mind to make him a more effective king as his puppet or something?

[elfwhistletree]

OK, I don't think I have the whole picture, but I can help a bit...

In the original legend, after the last battle, Arthur doesn't die but sleeps under a hill (with an army of knights) so that he can return again in England's darkest hour, or some such. Perhaps in this fic the hill is Stonehenge? Also it is Merlin's role to look after while he is sleeping, but he has been distracted, perhaps by Nimue?

And then there are cuts to the new canon version, which are perhaps an alternate or parallel reality, or a dream masterminded by Merlin while Arthur is sleeping, or something like that. And there's sexual tension between the two of them, and Merlin living backwards, and knowing a lot more than he lets on and DESTINY, but no chained up dragon!

It is indeed intricate and not explicitly explained, but I think that style fits rather well with the whole myth and magic world view.

Hope that makes some sense - Halo, please tell me if I've missed anything important :-)

[halotolerant]

You've got most all of it - I've added a few things below. And, yes, I kind of didn't want to actually explain it in the fic, but maybe I should have explained it a little bit more! It certainly takes a working knowledge of traditional legend, and cheers for outlining that in your comment *g*

[halotolerant]

Yes, apologies, this clearly wasn't as clear outside my head as in it!

Essentially I'm using the 'traditional' canon as elfwhistletree has outlined above. My idea is that the reality we see in the TV series is actually a dream Merlin has given to Arthur whilst Arthur sleeps underground, awaiting his return at England's hour of greatest need. Merlin has also become lost in the dream, allowing his long-held love for Arthur to overwhelm him now that suddenly he has a chance to indulge it. However, because Merlin loses himself, Arthur awakes and Merlin must send him to sleep again.

The segments go in order: reality, dream, the past, reality, dream, the past etc

Hope that's a little clearer *g*